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Back in the 70s (having heard Keith Emerson's version), I learned the piano versions of Promenade and the The Great Gate of Kiev from Mussorgsky's Picture At An Exhibition. I'm now trying to play Promenade, with its fistfuls of chords, again.

Now, I have a tendency to play all four-note chords with (right hand) 1, 2, 3 and 5. I'm thinking I should probably be trying to improve my technique by playing straightforward four-note major and minor chord inversions (nothing worse than three or four flats) with 1, 2, 4 and 5?

play the chord in the most comfortable + sensible method based on the chord or register position you've just come from and where you are going next. Ie. NOT a restriction of finger positioning for all 4 note chords.

It doesn't make sense to play a compact chord vs. a very spread out open chord always with the same fingers.

1234 for the 1st inversion of C major or F major isn't going to work at all for me . I don't think Promenade has anything other than plain majors and minors.

Did you not ask about 4 note chords in your original post? Of course, for major & minor triads 1,2,3,4 won't work. A general consensus is 1,3,5; 1,2,4 or 5 for 1-st inversion; 1,3,5 for 2-nd inversion. But you also need to know where you are going next and this will influence the choice of fingering.

Sorry. I'm not sure of the correct term. Looking in the books four-note does indeed seem to refer to four notes all of different pitch, such a 7th, which isn't what I meant. In this piece - Promenade - many chords have four keys being played but two of the pitches will be octaves. They are all plain major or minor chords.

There's an example at 0:40 here: the right hand in the middle of bar 13 or the left hand in bar 14.

'Tis a small thing. I was just thinking maybe I should be practising more flexibility.

I know this is an old thread, but i found it and thought better than to start a new one .

My teacher now has me practicing 4-note chords in all inversions, block and broken. the broken chords are fine, but the block chords are a little uncomfortable.

for example in the key of C it would be CEGC.. first inversion using fingers RH 1-2-3-5 LH 5-3-2-1... the second inversion gets me, EGCE using fingers RH 1-2-4-5 LH 5-4-2-1. i find it hard to smoothly transition to that fingering, i did just start practicing it. but feels very awkward.7th chord inversions i am ok with, but these not so much.

Am i going about it the right way and just need to be more patient? or is there something else i should be doing for the smooth transitioning??

I know this is an old thread, but i found it and thought better than to start a new one .

My teacher now has me practicing 4-note chords in all inversions, block and broken. the broken chords are fine, but the block chords are a little uncomfortable.

for example in the key of C it would be CEGC.. first inversion using fingers RH 1-2-3-5 LH 5-3-2-1... the second inversion gets me, EGCE using fingers RH 1-2-4-5 LH 5-4-2-1. i find it hard to smoothly transition to that fingering, i did just start practicing it. but feels very awkward.7th chord inversions i am ok with, but these not so much.

Am i going about it the right way and just need to be more patient? or is there something else i should be doing for the smooth transitioning??

Thanks alot everyone!:)

J.T.

That's actually the first inversion (E-G-C-E), not second.

I also choose to break this rule quite often, for example in Rachmaninov's Prelude in C Sharp minor, I play the big left hand chords (like G#/B/E/G#) with 5-3-2-1. It just feels better to me.